During the past years mobile communication systems have been extended with new services, such as Instant Messaging, SyncML, Presence, MMS, etc. which are based on a client-server architecture. Such services are supported in a mobile communication terminal using an application in the mobile communication terminal. Furthermore, a number of settings are required which define configurations for connecting to, authenticating with, defining service preferences for, etc., each service of service providers.
In order for a user of a mobile communication terminal to use such a client-server based service in prior art communication systems, the user first needs to order the service from a service provider. Then the user needs to configure one or more client applications in the communication terminal. This is manually done by entering settings, such as connectivity server, username, password, etc. and storing these settings in the application(s) in the mobile communication terminal. When using the service, the application(s) then uses the service provider settings when connecting to, authenticating with, defining service preferences for, the client-server based service.
In some prior art system, e.g. as disclosed in WO 97/32439, Lehtonen, A. et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,909, Alanara S. et al, settings may be sent to a mobile communication terminal in a short message. The short message includes an identification part identifying the application in the mobile communication terminal to which the settings are to be directed.
With the increase of client-server based services supported in a single communication terminal, the number of service provider settings stored in the mobile communication terminal increases. This gives rise to a problem in the prior art with an increasing complexity of management of the service provider settings. For example, it will be difficult to identify the location of service provider settings, to know which settings may be changed, edited, added, deleted, etc., and to ensure that a correct updated version of the setting are used.
Furthermore, with the increase of the number of service provider settings to be stored, the amount of memory used for such storage increases.
In addition to the amount of client-server based services, also the need for updating the service provider settings due to e.g. location specific settings, i.e. service provider settings which will differ depending on the location of the mobile communication terminal, time specific settings, i.e. service provider settings which will differ depending on the time of day, etc. is increasing. This further increases the problem with the complexity of management of the service provider settings in prior art.
The complexity of the management of the service provider settings in prior art makes it difficult for users of a mobile communication terminal to set up the mobile communication terminal in order to use a new service from a service provider.